18:16 He reached down 1 from above and took hold of me;
he pulled me from the surging water. 2
50:4 He summons the heavens above,
as well as the earth, so that he might judge his people. 3
78:69 He made his sanctuary as enduring as the heavens above; 4
as secure as the earth, which he established permanently. 5
89:29 I will give him an eternal dynasty, 6
and make his throne as enduring as the skies above. 7
93:4 Above the sound of the surging water, 8
and the mighty waves of the sea,
the Lord sits enthroned in majesty. 9
97:9 For you, O Lord, are the sovereign king 10 over the whole earth;
you are elevated high above all gods.
102:19 For he will look down from his sanctuary above; 11
from heaven the Lord will look toward earth, 12
103:11 For as the skies are high above the earth,
so his loyal love towers 13 over his faithful followers. 14
144:7 Reach down 15 from above!
Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, 16
from the power of foreigners, 17
1 tn Heb “stretched.” Perhaps “his hand” should be supplied by ellipsis (see Ps 144:7). In this poetic narrative context the three prefixed verbal forms in this verse are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.
2 tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see v. 4 and Ps 144:7).
3 tn Or perhaps “to testify against his people.”
sn The personified heavens and earth (see v. 1 as well) are summoned to God’s courtroom as witnesses against God’s covenant people (see Isa 1:2). Long before this Moses warned the people that the heavens and earth would be watching their actions (see Deut 4:26; 30:19; 31:28; 32:1).
4 tc Heb “and he built like the exalting [ones] his sanctuary.” The phrase כְּמוֹ־רָמִים (kÿmo-ramim, “like the exalting [ones]”) is a poetic form of the comparative preposition followed by a participial form of the verb רוּם (rum, “be exalted”). The text should be emended to כִּמְרֹמִים (kimromim, “like the [heavenly] heights”). See Ps 148:1, where “heights” refers to the heavens above.
5 tn Heb “like the earth, [which] he established permanently.” The feminine singular suffix on the Hebrew verb יָסַד (yasad, “to establish”) refers to the grammatically feminine noun “earth.”
6 tn Heb “and I will set in place forever his offspring.”
7 tn Heb “and his throne like the days of the heavens.”
8 tn Heb “mighty waters.”
sn The surging waters here symbolizes the hostile enemies of God who seek to destroy the order he has established in the world (see Pss 18:17; 29:3; 32:6; 77:20; 144:7; Isa 17:13; Jer 51:55; Ezek 26:19; Hab 3:15). But the Lord is depicted as elevated above and sovereign over these raging waters.
9 tn Heb “mighty on high [is] the
10 tn Traditionally “Most High.”
11 tn Heb “from the height of his sanctuary.”
12 tn The perfect verbal forms in v. 19 are functioning as future perfects, indicating future actions that will precede the future developments described in v. 18.
13 tn For this sense of the verb גָבַר (gavar), see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 17, 19.
14 tn Heb “those who fear him.”
15 tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”
16 tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful foreign enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see the next line and Ps 18:16-17).
17 tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”